Tagged: Paul Graziano

If you haven’t already watched this video that appeared on WBAL’s website recently, you should. (But not while eating. You’ll thank me for the warning later.) In the video, reporter David Collins walks around a rental home owned by Steven McFadgen, a Virginia attorney. McFadgen had rented the home to a low-income tenant under HUD’s Section 8 program — a program that is administered locally in Baltimore by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC), headed by Paul Graziano.

Interesting to note — the tenant, while receiving Section 8 benefits — is also a Section 8 housing inspector, employed by HABC. In other words — it’s her job to make sure landlords who participate in the Section 8 rental program are maintaining their homes in a safe and healthy manner. And she’s also employed by the city’s housing authority — apparently at a salary rate that qualifies her for federal housing benefits.

I won’t go into detail about the video — it’s nauseating (hence my warning about not eating while watching) — but I will tell you that the words “feces, roaches, and trash” are mentioned.

If this is how this woman and her family live — perhaps she isn’t qualified to inspect properties. I’ve heard stories from landlords about their homes being trashed — this is the first time I’ve seen photos/video of something this awful. And the refusal of HABC to take action against its employee is mind-boggling. With so many in Baltimore who are out of work — surely they could find someone more qualified for this position than Ms. Jones.

This story is more about Ms. Jones and the way she apparently lives — it’s about HABC and yet again, it’s just another example of the utter lack of accountability within the organization. Hopefully some day we’ll have a mayor and city council that understand our city — even its poorest residents — need and deserve better leadership for all of our city agencies, but especially at HABC.

Another article on rehabs without permits appeared in the Baltimore Sun in April. This time, the owner was threatened with jail time. I guess since it happened in Canton, the city decided to get tough.

The Detroit Free Press did an excellent series on keeping schoolchildren safe on their route to school — something most people take for granted. Unfortunately, in some major cities — kids have an unsafe walk, passing vacant homes that are a magnet for criminal activity.

Lots of housing-related crime happened in September. Kenneth Koehler of Baltimore pleaded guilty to wire fraud, in a scheme that left mortgage lenders holding the bag for over $1 million in debt. Six Upper Fells Point homes went into foreclosure as a result of this scam.

Edward Ericson, Jr. from the Baltimore City Paper wrote about the debacle with the Prisoner’s Aid Association-owned properties that have been condemned, foreclosed on, or are in foreclosure. It’s definitely worth reading both articles: First ArticleSecond Article.

ProPublica published their “Living Apart” series in November. The series is about fair housing in the US, and how things went terribly wrong, despite the best intentions of lawmakers on both sides of the fence. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

In Milwaukee, WI, foreclosed and abandoned homes continued to be a problem — yet Wisconsin’s governor Scott Walker used settlement money received from a federal mortgage abuse lawsuit to balance the budget.

Interesting to see that Johns Hopkins is pledging millions of dollars to fix up the neighborhoods surrounding its Homewood campus — what about all of the lead paint-filled blighted homes owned by the Bloomberg School of Public Health near Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore?

Speaking of mortgage fraud, three people were indicted for their role in a fraud scheme that concentrated around houses in the Reservoir Hill neighborhood.

Did you know Maryland offers an income tax credit for low-income/elderly renters? It follows the premise that renters pay property taxes as part of their rent, and therefore should be allowed an opportunity to recoup some of that money. The deadline for filing each year is September 1.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced last Friday the distribution of $42 million in grants to housing counseling agencies, calling the programs “indispensible”.

People ask me all the time why I “hate Baltimore”. I don’t hate Baltimore. Seriously, would YOU spend almost all of your free time in the neighborhoods I walk around, documenting blighted vacants, taking risks with your personal safety (albeit small risks) for a city you hate? Of course not. You’d simply move away, as so many of my friends and neighbors have done. What I do despise, however, is the phony head-in-the-sand mentality I come up against — a combination of newer residents who are merely echoing the nonsense they were told by their realtor, city officials who have a vested interest in looking the other way, or long-time community association folks who don’t want to admit their 20-year Plan A hasn’t worked….in 20 years. Phony boosterism sucks — and here’s why. The last paragraph says it all, so you can skip ahead if you don’t want to read the whole thing.

Two Ohio lawmakers have introduced the Restore Our Neighborhoods Act of 2012, which would result in billions of dollars that municipalities could use to demolish blighted neighborhoods. Will be interesting to see if Maryland representatives will vote for or against.

WBAL and the Daily Record are both reporting that certain assets belonging to the Baltimore Housing Authority are to be seized by the sherrif’s department in order to pay for lead paint judgements the City has refused to pay.

The assets include vehicles and computers, which will be auctioned off. Evan Goldman, the attorney who had the foresight to go after non-federally owned assets, said “It’s going to be a public auction advertised in the paper, and anyone can go there and bid on a non-federal vehicle and all the funds are going to be used to pay the judgment.”

By the way, in case you were wondering — taxpayers have been paying the tab for HABC’s legal fees.

Property owners receiving the homestead tax credit — beware. If you’re not actually living in the home, you’ll probably lose the credit, and owe the city back taxes. And rightfully so. However, we find it odd this article doesn’t give credit (no pun intended) where credit is due. A resident is responsible for finding the city’s negligence, as documented here in an earlier article.

Kevin Pushia, a disgraced pastor and slumlord, was sentenced to life plus 45 years for his role in the murder of a mentally disabled man in Baltimore. You can read more about this “man of the cloth” here.

It’s inappropriate for the head of a city agency to be addressing a group that is run by a man whose business practices are questionable at best. Joe DiMaggio is currently fighting a lead paint lawsuit, has failed to register rental properties, and other housing code violation lawsuits. He also has an open warrant for failing to appear in housing court.

Again, Mr. Graziano has shown bad judgement by agreeing to address this group as a colleague and not as the head of a regulatory agency — and he has again shown his lack of ethics by maintaining relationships with people who have shown such a blatant disregard for our city and its taxpaying residents.